Malinga five wickets in Twenty20 for first time:

Lankans cock-a-snook at the rules

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE reporting

It was a delighted Sri Lankan cricket Captain Mahela Jayawardene who faced the media after Sri Lanka’s resounding victory over reigning champions England in the final Super Eight game that also saw Sri Lanka enter the semi-finals and England relinquish their hold on the Twenty20 Trophy at the Pallekele Stadium on Monday.

After West Indies made certain of a place in the semi-finals after beating New Zealand in the Super Over, it was paramount that England beat Sri Lanka to stay alive in the tourney. But the Lankans produced a superfine all round effort to push aside Stuart Broad’s Englishmen to waltz into the semis.

There was a bit of controversy when Kumar Sangakkara walked out to toss instead of regular captain Mahela Jayawardene. Various stories did the round, like with Jayawardene having a bad trot with the toss and that Sangkkaraa substituted in the hope that Sangakkara would win the toss and bring luck. But Sangakkara too lost the toss and England asked Sri Lanka to bat.

Jayawardene was questioned as to why he was at the media conference instead of Kumar Sangakkara who was the official captain of the game.’ Do you want me to go’ he retorted. When it came to the change of captain controversy and questions, Jayawardene who never loses his cool and who is always calm and collected and an example to other captains explained.

‘I had a warning for an over rate issue and if it happens again I might miss the match. So what we did was have Kumar Sangakkara as the official captain. I don’t think that the intention was wrong. It is a tough system and it’s tough to bowl 20 overs in an hour and 20 minutes in a tourney like this.

‘We try out best, but the penalties are harsh. We don’t want to miss the big games, so we did it with the right intentions. Angelo Mathews was on the same offence against Pakistan in Hambantota. So if we got nailed he misses a game as well. We had to find someone who did not have a rap sheet so Kumar fitted the bill’. When asked as to who thought out the idea, Jayewardene poured out praise to Manager Charith Senanayake. Incidentally Senanayake was a former belligerent opening batsman and is doing an excellent job as manager. Jayawardene said: ‘The ploy was thought out by team manager Charith Senanayake and rules verified and consulted the ICC Code of Conduct before proceeding. I am, sure they will change the rules after this, but hopefully not in this tournament’.

Jayawardene also spoke highly of his middle order batting strength. In the earlier games the top order had been doing the scoring, but in this game the middle order got a hit and Jeevan Mendis, Anjelo Mathews, Lahiru Thiramanne and Thisara Perera obliged.

Slinger Lasith Malinga who had not been among the wickets in recent times, bowled a devastating spell to mesmerize and lure the England batsmen to their demise. He had five wickets in Twenty20 game for the first time which also gave him the man of the match award. He is hitting form at the right time and should be a threat in the semis and final.